A baby journey

The breast way…

On May 17th 2016 at 5pm Ella was born and my first ever breastfeeding experience started immediately after. The midwife put her straight on my left breast and I never looked back.

My breastfeeding journey had been filled with happiness, love and comfort and I cannot speak highly enough of it or recommend it more.

I have loved every second of nursing Ella, it makes you sit (literally) and take a moment to be calm, engage with your baby and breath… These moments cannot ever be replaced with anything.

From the get go I have found breastfeeding very rewarding, but following a bad spell with teething pain, I somehow turned into a bit of a dummy (or pacifier to the American proud). Soon after this I developed a bad episode of mastitis and that’s pretty much when I decided that I wanted to start the bottle-feeding process.

It hadn’t been easy by any means. We’ve had tears, grumps and growns and ALOT of wasted milk. All the time the idea of a bit more freedom kept me going though.

I started on Aptimal which did not suit Ella at ALL. The MAM bottles did stick though and I think these were the closest thing I could find to a real nipple. They are flat you see, and I can only imagine that this is what happens to my nipple when she feeds. We now use HIPP Organic formula. This is also a close fit to breast milk as it contains similar qualities.

I single handedly got Ella to take the bottle and it hadn’t been easy. It had taken nearly two months and a great determination from myself. But, I am so glad I kept going with it.

9 (nearly 10) months of breastfeeding is beyond a good start for Ella and – now that she is eating a good variety of solids – is more than enough to help her to thrive. I have loved every moment of feeding, but I am so ready for shared responsibility when it comes to getting Ella to sleep at night. I am looking forward to things again and cannot wait to sleep on my stomach for the first time in over a year!